Kaci Sullivan, 30, has become the first person in the world to give birth while living as both genders, four years after beginning the transition from female to male
A transgender man has given birth to a healthy baby five years after having his first child as a woman.
Kaci Sullivan, 30, has become the first person in the world to give birth while living as both genders, four years after he began the transition from female to male.
The business student conceived with partner Steven, 27, after a break from taking male hormones.
He underwent a C-section following seven days in labour before welcoming Phoenix, who weighs a healthy 8lbs 9oz.
The couple have not revealed the baby’s sex and say the child will be raised as ‘gender neutral’ until being old enough to decide its sexuality.
Kaci already had one child, five-year-old Grayson, with his ex-husband, who he gave birth to while living as a woman before coming out as transgender.
Despite facing abuse online and being stared at while in public with a bump, brave Kaci decided to speak out to break the stigma around trans parenthood.
Kaci, from Wisconsin, US, said: “The moment the baby came out and I got to hear them cry was indescribable. It’s incredible to think that I had made this little human.
“After 26 weeks of morning sickness and seven days in labour it was such a beautiful moment.
“We are just so happy and grateful and enjoying spending time together as a family. The baby is delightful, loving and sweet.
“The connection I’ve felt to them throughout my pregnancy has been an incredible privilege and the last nine months have brought my partner and I so close together.”
He added: “Some people have been perturbed by the idea of me giving birth but I don’t engage or respond to them. If I see those comments I just get rid of them.
“They will try and find our safe space and violate it with their opinions, but they are jerks. I don’t waste my time or energy by giving them anything in return.
“Because I don’t see pregnancy as inherently feminine, and because I don’t subscribe to make-believe gender roles, I wasn’t threatened by the idea of pregnancy.
“It didn’t make me feel any less masculine.”
Kaci, who runs the TransLiberation Art Coalition, promoting activism in art, was assigned the female gender at birth.
But he always struggled with his identity, a problem that was made worse as he suffered abuse which began when he was just four.
He met his first husband at 19 and tied the knot in 2010, but by his early twenties was battling severe depression and began to drink excessively.
When Kaci fell pregnant with his first child in July 2011, he hoped becoming a mother would make him feel more feminine – but was left in a dark place when it didn’t.
He said: “Throughout the experience, I prayed to connect with womanhood, to identify with what was happening to my body, but I couldn’t.
“I felt so hopeless and lost. I wanted to die. I fell into such a dark place and I was terrified to bring a baby into that darkness with me.
“But the moment they put him in my arms it was bliss. Immediately I loved him like I had never loved anything or anyone and I felt such a surge of duty to him.”
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